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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30092166">To Watch the Sun Rise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/okeatingmycaptain/pseuds/okeatingmycaptain'>okeatingmycaptain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner, the death cure - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Newt - Freeform, Post-The Death Cure, Post-The Maze Runner, Short One Shot, The Maze Runner - Freeform, Thomas - Freeform, brenda - Freeform, chuck - Freeform, janson - Freeform, minho - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:47:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>882</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30092166</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/okeatingmycaptain/pseuds/okeatingmycaptain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a short one-shot i wrote after rewatching The Death Cure. it pretty much wrote itself in my head while the last few minutes were playing (once they make it to the Safe Haven) and this is how I imagined things going after the end of the trilogy. Canon-compliant in a past sense, but of course this is just how I think things would have gone with Thomas after the end of the third movie.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Brenda/Thomas (Maze Runner)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To Watch the Sun Rise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Waves crashed against the sand at Thomas’ feet, the monotony of the sound soothing his nerves as he stared hard at the horizon. He knew it well; it wasn’t the first time he’d watched the sun rise from this very spot after waking up screaming. </p><p>The nightmares never seemed to stop. They were never the same, but they all had the same elements. Newt. Teresa. Janson. Chuck. The people in his head that he couldn’t forget, and the look on each of their faces as they died. He saw other things too, in his dreams, but they were the most frequent. So, night after night, he ended up here. On the beach, staring at the horizon until the sun had risen. </p><p>Eventually, Brenda would find him, plagued enough by nightmares of her own to seek the same solace in the sea that Thomas had found. It was peaceful, and calm, and a reminder of where they were. The Safe Haven. Even after two years, it was hard to believe that they’d actually made it. </p><p>So they would sit together, watching the horizon and letting the sound of the waves beat against their ears until the horrors in their heads were quieted. And, even though those horrors never went away completely - Thomas doubted that they ever would - they were that much more subdued for the time being. Sometimes, on the rare nights that Brenda slept soundly, Minho, or Aris, or even Gally, would join Thomas instead. But it would always end up the two of them again, and that spot on the beach quickly became theirs and theirs alone. At first, they never spoke, each respecting the silence of the other. But then, after they’d been watching the sun rise together for months, Brenda spoke softly.</p><p>“I remember my mother. Before the Flare.” She swallowed, her eyes locked on the horizon, on the sun that was just beginning to creep up over the edge of the world. “She was beautiful.” She shifted her weight, finding and more comfortable position on the sand. “And my father, he was tall, with a laugh that rumbled deep in his chest.” Pause. “That’s how I want to remember them. How they deserve to be remembered.”  </p><p>“After dinner, in the Glade, we would all watch the sun set behind the walls.” Thomas took a breath. “It didn’t matter where you were in the Glade, you found a place to watch it go down and you would wait until it was gone. No one ever said out loud that that’s what we were doing, but we all knew. That’s one of the few good memories I have of that place, before it all went wrong. Newt, Chuck, Ben, Alby, Winston - that’s how they deserve to be remembered.” </p><p>After that day, they would tell each other stories, reminding one another of the ones they wanted to remember. There was, over everything, the paralyzing fear of forgetting. Of waking up one day and realizing that all you have of the people you loved are the bad memories, the ones you want to burn out of your head so bad that you can’t sleep at night. So they recounted the good memories, over and over and over, until they were burned into their memories and Thomas and Brenda knew one another better than they ever had before. </p><p>So when she started staying in his tent at night instead of Jorge’s, no one was surprised. They were good for each other, everyone could see that. Nothing had turned out the way that it should have, but together they found some semblance of peace.  </p><p>And at some point - Thomas could never remember exactly when - the nightmares started to fade. The retelling of the good memories spread beyond the nights spent on the beach, and eventually there were bonfires dedicated to that purpose. </p><p>Thomas attended every single one. </p><p>And then, three years after their nights on the beach had begun, Brenda told Thomas about the child she was carrying. His gut reaction of terror faded faster than he ever would have expected it to, the idea of bringing a child into such a broken world quickly replaced by the reminder that they were safe. They were home. And hadn’t that been the point all along, to build a better world? A world where they could start again, believing in a place where they, and everyone who would come after them, could be safe? Could be at peace? </p><p>After she told him, he spent the night on the beach. Not because of nightmares, but so he could think about how far they’d come. The safety of this place in the sand had spread to the rest of their home, permeating everything that happened. The longer they went without contact from the outside world, the safer they would become. Maybe there were still people out there, and maybe there was no one left. Thomas didn’t think he would ever find out. But he was confident in their little community, in the home they’d built over the past years. It had taken them so long to get here, but now here they were, and he was ready to take on whatever life’s next challenge for him was. </p><p>After all, he’d made it too far to give up now.</p>
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